Sean C

I think you're right, which is why I bid $80. It seemed high enough over the normal high bid that I'd get it, but you never know how much someone else wants it ahead of time. Selling mine and buying a pair of atlas drivers might be the thing to do at this point. That opens up the question of whether I shouldn't buy a modern 2 inch horn and driver instead though. -Sean

Wow, the University driver just on ebay went for over $80! I guess someone else really wanted that one. =[ A heresy just popped up on Craigslist here for $95. Despite calling within an hour of posting I was too slow, dammit! They looked nice too. BTW, thanks to everyone who has responded. []

I do. I'd rather not get in a bidding war.

There is one listed now that I'm going to try for. These caps have no markings other than the stamped specs. Some people prize unmolested originality. I kept the caps since it costs me nothing to do so and I can return the crossovers to as found condition if I pass them on to someone who wants that.

Well, I've already re-capped the old crossovers. Given the improvement, they needed it. I've kept the old caps and didn't really molest anything so it could be restored to original. I suppose I need to make a call on any mid horn changes before I build a steep slope crossover. I wonder if I could raid one of the local alternator repair places for cheap magnet wire to use for inductors... If I keep them, I've considered covering the cabinets in cloth upholstery style. I think if I remove the horns, cloth cover the motorboard with cutouts for the horns and then remount the horns on the outside I wouldn't have to worry about a stand-off for the grill cloth. Now to haunt Craigslist looking for another pair to so I can use one of these as a mid. My living room is laid out poorly for speaker placement so I can't use Korns... Sean

Very slick! That was a great read. Interesting that the Cornwall was timbre and sensitivity matched with the Korns. Ahh, that would explain it. At 41, it's been awhile since I've run across something where being too young to know was a problem! I suppose that still makes '60 a reasonable guess for mine. I don't see an arrow. What would it be indicating the orientation of?

Also, anyone know if the vertical rear port tuned to a similar frequency as the later front port Corns? Sean

I just looked. Yes they do! I didn't realize those were ports. Doh! I hadn't read about rear ported Cornwalls. Thanks! Do you know when yours were made? My guess is that mine are late '59 - early '61 based on the drivers they have. If you have a date for your 140s then I'll know mine were made later than that. With the 120's date maybe we could make a crude guess based on units made per month. Sean

Yes they do have labels, serial #s 169 and 170. Click this link to see pictures of all the tags, interior and crossover. I get the impression that customization was available special order, and that there was some experimentation with the first Cornwall verts. Anyone have any confirmation of that? I've read the Klipsch memo mentioning that the Verts were being developed as a better compromise for owners who were using horizontal Corns on their side to better work with the room's decore.

Sure, here yah go. (excuse the mess, I'd stuffed the one with the dead mid driver into the corner and put my amp on it...) Now that I'm looking at it, it seems the bass driver is too close to the edge of the motorboard to add a port in the usual location. I guess if they pair gets split up to be center channels the ports could be on the left side, which would be the new bottom.

I picked up a pair of Cornwall's about a month ago, and I'm trying to decide what to do with them. Cosmetically they are somewhat rough unstained plywood with crude black spraypaint on the motorboard. I supposed they were installed behind black cloth in their former life. From the combination of drivers present and flat front I think they are 1960 designers. One of the University K-55 mid drivers is open, and they can't be opened to replace the diaphram/voice coil. I replaced the old crossover's caps with Solen caps so I could at least hear what the one fully working Cornwall sounds like. The trebel improved dramatically, mids somewhat. As I've only got one fully working I've tried using it as a center channel (with totally mismatched speakers - not a fair test). My impressions so far: For movies, vocals are usually clear and well presented enought that I was happy. Sibilances and any kind of horn like blair is over emphasized though. With music, some sonic transitions produced a honky sound. As a center speaker, I'm looking straight down the mid horn. During some especially loud movie sounds the upper mid range was suddenly painfully loud. That was probably beaming, right? Overall, the upper bass/lower mids seem to be lacking. I'm trying to decide where to head with these speakers, and would like some advice. They are consecutive serial numbers, but are not mirror images of each other. Shouldn't the tweeters/mid be on opposite sides? Would this prevent them from ever imaging properly? The cabinet has no ports at all. Would I be helping, hurting or just changing the sound by cutting them in? Should I add ports? Were Corns with no ports somewhat common or are these possibly one ofs? Do I have to change the crossover if I add ports? As Corn verts, they have lots of open room on the motorboard over the woofer. There is lots of room to cut in a larger mid horn, especially a horizontal one. Would it be better to find a mid horn whose horizontal dispersion is similar to the tweeters vertical dispersion and make the speaker a vertical tweet/horizontal mid horn speaker? I've seen that there were several mid drivers, and that modfied Corns are being made with 2 inch driver horns now. Keeping in mind that these cabinets aren't gems, is it worthwhile to try and locate a matching replacement SAHF K-55 driver to make a matched pair (to control costs) or do I need to go with Atlas drivers or new 2 inch drivers to keep from wasting my time? Keeping in mind the K1000 mid horns, open K-55 and rough cabinet is it better to part these out? I followed recent auctions for the drivers, horns and k1000-5000 crossover and the total was $950 (!! - $400 for the Jensen woofers??!? Why?) I could replace the mid horn on one, entirely cover it with black cloth upholstery style and use it as a center channel. That would let me pass the other on to someone else for use as a Heritage center channel. Or update them to current Mod Cornwall/Cornscalla specs, possibly with one of the horn/driver pairs that would allow me to go 2-way so the current mid/tweeter orientation and lack of mirror image orientation wouldn't matter. More pictures of the crossover/drivers/serial # cards here.

[] Lol!

Ok, so now I know what I'll be either matching or changing the crossover from when I replace it. Given the rest of the speaker that may date my Cornwall to 1960(ish) since it's before the Atlas mids, and lacks bass ports. Thanks for the info! Upon further review they seem to be the back side of rivets.

Hmm, that could be it! I'll check when I get home.Thanks for the idea.

They sell the parts, but this driver can't be taken apart to get to it - unless there is a trick I don't know. It's not bolted together...